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Teen Drivers Buckle, but Teen Passengers Don’t

Most teen drivers fasten their seat belts when they get behind the wheel. But troubling new data show that teen passengers are far less likely to buckle up.

The finding, to be published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, shows a significant gap in public education efforts to reduce teen driving deaths. While many new state laws have resulted in extra limits for teen drivers, little attention has been paid to the teens in the car who aren’t behind the wheel.

Motor-vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among adolescents in the United States, accounting for nearly 5,000 fatalities and over 400,000 injuries annually among teens 16 and older. The crash rate for teen drivers is four times higher than for older drivers.

But studies show that it’s more than just teen drivers who are at risk — 40 percent of teen motor-vehicle deaths involve passengers. Researchers from Meharry Medical College in Nashville analyzed data from national Youth Risk Behavior surveys collected in 2001 and 2003 from 12,731 black, white and Hispanic high school students aged 16 years and older.

Overall, 59 percent of students always used seat belts when driving, but only 42 percent always buckled up as passengers, the researchers found. Only about one out of three students said they always wore seat belts whether driving or riding as a passenger.

There were important differences by gender, race and even the grades teens get on their report cards, but in all categories, passenger use of seat belts ranged from 10 to 21 percentage points lower than for drivers.

Among girls, 67 percent wore seat belts while driving, but the number dropped to 46 percent when girls moved out of the driver seat. For boys, 52 percent buckled up as drivers, but the number dropped to 38 percent in the passenger seat.

Blacks were the least likely to buckle up in the passenger seat, with only 37 percent reporting seat-belt use, compared to about 43 percent by Hispanics and whites.

Students who made A’s and B’s in school were more likely to buckle passenger belts than C students, but there was still a tremendous difference in seat-belt use compared to drivers. For instance, about 70 percent of student drivers who were A students wore seat belts, but just 50 percent of A students who were passengers buckled up.

I see in the report that the Youth Risk Behavior Survey questionnaire was used to gather the data. I’m not a statistician, but I believe (perhaps incorrectly) that self-reported behavior is suspect. I also wonder whether teen drivers would be more likely to identify themselves as using seat belts regularly in order to appear more responsible and conscientious than they are. For example, I’m imagining a teen giving a different response depending on whether she was asked about her habits as a driver and as a passenger, since most teens are both.

Where I live, the worst accidents are those that combine underage drinking and failure to use seat belts. As with your column Getting Through to Teens About Driving Risks, it’s the same problem of somehow convincing teens that they and their friends are mortal. I’m in my 50s and I can still remember driving 40 mph over the limit on the freeway, no seatbelt, and absolutely no fear.

The other problem I see is that many adults set a horrible example. In parts of the South and Southwest, “Hold my beer and watch this” is not just a punchline.

Interesting post. I’ve read too many stories over the years of teens dying in accidents, most of whom weren’t wearing seatbelts. Ontario adopted a seatbelt law on Jan. 1, 1976, and I’ve worn my seatbelt almost 100% of the time since then. (In the ’70s, many taxis didn’t have seatbelts.) I wouldn’t dream of getting into a car today and not strapping in.

Could some of teens’ resistance to seatbelts come from their feelings of invincibility?

On a related note, I believe it’s still about one-third of auto fatalities overall are those who weren’t wearing seatbelts. And that’s something only drivers and passengers can fix.

BTW, great blog; I always enjoyed your writing in The Wall Street Journal.

Wearing seat belts is a sensible choice for teens (and adults alike) but for teens and young adults who are driving motorcycles, many states have changed their laws and now allow drivers not to wear them. In the spirit of personal choice, many states eliminated manditory helmet laws and some think this a victory for self-determination. It might be a victory for legistating one of the worst public policies in U.S. history.

Teens and young adults are notoriously poor at making decisions that affect their wellbeing. Why would a state, charged with protecting their citizens, change a law that keeps one of our most precious resources, our youth, out of harm’s way? Emergency rooms now hear all too often the radio message “code blue” when a medical emergency helicopter brings in a young accident victim who was motocycling helmetless. Blame it on gutless politicians. It is an expensive mistake.

Okay, let’s do this:
We give starter licenses to teens and they don’t get a regular grownup license until they’re 21.

Anyone under 21 committing ANY traffic infraction loses their starter license with no option to re-apply until they turn 21.

Anyone under 21 caught driving without a license goes to juvenile jail for a non-trivial period of time.

Special dispensation at judge’s discretion for under-21s who have proven themselves to be adults–who work to support a family, for instance, because despite my earlier declaration that they should all be anesthetized or sent to Siberia ’til they’re 37, I realize that many teenaged people are gifted with great sense and maturity.

I commend the teens who do buckle up behind the wheel. But safe driving doesn’t just stop there. I am in my 30s and to this day my vehicle does not move a centimeter until EVERYONE is buckled up, in the front seat and the back. Don’t like it? Then I hope you’re wearing good shoes! Teens, go just one step further and extend that “courtesy” to your vehicular guests. Be firm, and don’t give in. Maybe then we can reduce these preventable accidents.

To post # 2 (Jack) I’m no expert, but here’s my understanding why you need both seatbelts and airbags. When a car is hit by another car or hits a fixed object — a wall or a tree — the force is tremendous, even at low speeds. Seatbelts are the primary protection, keeping people from being ejected or being flying objects within the vehicle. People who are ejected are much more likely to be killed or severely injured. But even with seatbelts, people within a car may flop around inside the car, hitting the dash or the frame of the car. The airbags cushion that kind of impact, preventing head injuries especially. If anyone else has something to add or correct, please do so.

A seatbelt keeps your body stationary in the event of an accident…meaning keeping your body from thrashing around the inside of the car or worse being ejected out a window.

An airbag can only cushion you from hitting certain surfaces like the steering wheel (drivers side), dashboard (passenger) or the windows if you have side curtain airbags.

Cars are designed these days to absorb impact in and around the entire frame of the car(crumple zones) to keep the energy from being transferred to the people inside. You need a seat belt to keep a body fastened in one place for that mechanism to work.

Jack, airbags and seatbelts are meant to complement each other. They are not alternatives, but part of the same system. The seatbelt keeps you in the seat – keeps your body from flying around – and the airbag cushions you from the things that might hit you while you are in the seat (for example, the steering wheel or broken glass). Tell your teenager he needs them both – please!

Jack, the answer’s pretty simple, if the the car flips over, is an airbag going to save you from being tossed around the car or thrown from the vehicle? Anyone sitting in the backseat often doesn’t have an airbag, either.

To poster number 2: Being hit by an airbag full force without a seatbelt holding you back can cause serious injuries, and you can still be ejected from the car. I’m just over five feet tall and wouldn’t DREAM of being in any car without a seatbelt on. Have your teen look up airbag statistics, like the force at which it expels from the steering wheel/dashboard, what damage airbags can do to the human body (while saving your life, of course), with seatbelts on. I know someone who had a broken nose due to the airbag, but other than burns and that, was okay.

just thinking of my own two teen daughters, I wonder if part of the explanation (besides problems of self-reporting) is that parents who trust their kids to drive do so because those kids are fairly responsible. my daughters have several friends who aren’t yet allowed to drive, and on average they’re less responsible than their friends who have driving privileges. Did the survey ask teens about their behavior both as drivers or as passengers?

FROM TPP — Yes. If you’re looking at the issue of kids who “are more responsible” one measure might be grades. A students were far more likely to buckle up if they were drivers 70% used seatbelts. But even those A students stopped buckling up once they weren’t in the driver seat. When they become passengers, only 50% of A students buckle up. But overall, the gap in seat belt use between drivers and passengers was 10 to 20 percentage points. ONly about one in three kids used seatbelts as both driver and passenger.

“My teenage boy recently asked me why we needed to buckle up since our car has airbags. I did not have a good answer. Can anybody help me out here?”,

The first reason to wear a seatbelt is that it helps to keep you positioned in front of the steering wheel, helping you to control the vehicle in an emergency situation and avoid an accident in the first place, provided that you have studied and understand what to do in such situations.

If you are involved in a collision,however, the seatbelts are the primary restraint system for your body. Airbags are considered a supplemental restraint, not a primary restraint. For one thing, if you don’t have your belt on and you are in a head on collision, you risk shattering your femurs as your body continues to move forward and your vehicle stops.

Also, without a belt on, you can be ejected from the car, which is commonly fatal.

Without a belt on, you are in danger of coming too close to the airbag as it deploys, which, depending on the airbag, can be enough to kill you right there (depending on your height, airbag design, and other factors).

Before airbags, you could be projected through the windshield, causing total or near decapitation if you head goes through, and brain injury if it doesn’t. The airbags would mostly stop that, nowadays, though, I believe-but not if they’ve already deflated and your body is still moving forward.

There’s more, and you can research it further if it interests you.

But to sum, you’re better off wearing a seatbelt in a car with no airbags than the other way around.

Also, if you haven’t really studied how to do accident avoidance and don’t have a deep understanding of how braking and steering works, it’s probably worthwhile to read a book like Curt Rich’s Drive to Survive, or some other book that realistically covers vehicle dynamics and accident avoidance.

For teenagers, the book Crash Proof your teen looks pretty good, although I didn’t notice that it covers some things like hand position on the steering wheel that are basic to controlling the car.

This is in response to comment #2: I’m not an expert, but I think the reason the auto industry calls airbags the *supplemental* restraint system (SRS) is because they are designed to work in concert with seat belts, which are the primary restraint system. So, in a roll-over accident, if you were not wearing a seat belt, you might bounce off the airbag and end up fatally injured as the car continues to roll. Or depending on the dynamics of a particular accident, you might miss the airbag altogether.
Bottom line: airbags are not designed to be used without seat belts.

This issue goes farther than teens – I know plenty of adults who “remember the good old days” without seat belts, and choose to not wear them.

Also, there is research proving that teens don’t think they’re invincible – in fact, they are overly rational. They understand the risk involved, they just acknowledge the chances of them getting injured are slim. Unfortunately, what they look at these results and see is a percentage – they don’t often realize 15% means 15 out of 100.

@#2
You should wear a seatbelt even with airbags because the belt is supposed to reduce to force with which you hit whatever you are thrown toward. Also, it keeps you in the car instead of letting you be trown through the windshield. If you hit the airbags with nothing holding on to you, that can do sever damage on it’s own.

Jack, RU kidding me? You couldn’t come up with a good answer to your teen son’s question about why you had to buckle up because the car has airbags? Ah, what about wearing a seatbelt could save your life? Or maybe, I love you and I don’t want you dead.

In response to poster #2’s question about the need for seatbelts when airbags are present:

Airbags are also termed a Suplemental Inflatable Restraint (SIR), demonstrating the fact that they are designed to be used in conjunction with a seatbelt. Their primary purpose is to prevent an occupant from impacting the hard surfaces within a vehicle during a collision. The seatbelt, on the other hand, is designed to keep the occupant secured within the vehicle during the collision (as opposed to being launched from the vehicle) and to keep him from impacting any other portion of the vehicle.

During a collision, the speed of the vehicle decreases at a huge rate from the travelling speed of the vehicle, say 50 mph, to zero in a very short amount of time. An occupant not wearing a seatbelt will continue forward at the initial speed and then impact the now stationary interior of the vehicle – this is akin to having your body launched into a wall at 50 mph (or whatever the inital travelling speed was). The use of a seatbelt not only prevents the occupant’s body from impacting it’s surroundings, it also helps to distribute the force of the impact over a larger area, reducing the potential for injury.

The seatbelts used in most vehicles, however, do not completely immobalize the body. Portions, particularly the head, are still completely free to move. While the body may not fly forward during a collision, the head will, which is primarily where airbags come in. In the event of a collision, the airbag deploys at around 220 mph, with the intent that it will be inflated by the time any part of the occupant’s body comes in contact with it. It then provides a softer (at the speeds involved the impact can not be said to feel soft, but certainly less hard than the steering wheel or dashboard) point for the body to impact and, again, disperses this impact over a wider area to help reduce the potential for injury.

Though it is true that airbags were initially designed as seatbelt replacements, modern airbags are only designed to reduce the impact during a collision to a body whose speed has already been reduced through the use of seatbelts and crumple zones in the vehicle.

When I moved from California to Manhattan in 2005, I was really shocked to find out that only children under 16 and front-seat passengers are required to wear seat belts. In California, everyone in the car (and commercial trucks!) must wear seat belts, and there’s a $100 fine for the driver who allows any unbelted passengers. My experience as a parent of a teenager (not so long ago) is that local cops around schools watch for that violation, and will write it up, especially as a secondary ticket to speeding. Hits the kid in the wallet, and hopefully, the parents make him or her pay it. My rule in carpooling was never to start the engine until everybody was “locked and loaded.” There were times when we sat in the driveway until some young joker got the message and put on his belt.

People who wish to curtail teen and young adult driving forget how it is to be old enough to attend school and work and have no means to get there. 18 year olds need their cars as much as 38 year olds.

Regardless of what age people start driving, inexperienced drivers are going to have more accidents. Raising the age makes no sense.

Jack, re: the seatbelt question. As pointed out, airbags don’t protect in rollovers and will not prevent ejection. But also how about this answer: because it is the law! As far as I know, almost all states have laws requiring adults to buckle up. (I think New Hampshire may possibly be the only exception.)